This week MMAjunkie recognizes MMA’s greatest achievements from the past year. We’re honoring fighters in six categories as part of MMAjunkie’s 2013 MMA Awards. MMAjunkie writers and radio hosts provided a list of finalists, and MMAjunkie readers voted for the winners this past week. Today, we announce MMAjunkie’s Submission of the Year.

For a guy known for flashy moves, Anthony Pettis’ armbar finish of then-UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson was relatively dull.

It was also extremely effective, and more than a little bit surprising, especially when you consider that the man who got caught in it had, just minutes earlier, walked to the cage wearing a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.

If Pettis was impressed by his opponent’s pedigree in the rematch of their WEC lightweight title bout, he didn’t show it. In front of his hometown of Milwaukee at UFC 164 this past August, he displayed all his usual swagger en route to winning the UFC lightweight title.

As Henderson attempted to suffocate him in the clinch, Pettis made a show of checking his (nonexistent) watch. Once he’d managed to extricate himself, he launched a brutal series of kicks to the body, one right after another, like a video-game character who’s just discovered a cheap move he’s not about to abandon as long as it’s working.

Where it seemed like he’d finally gotten a little carried away was when an aborted cartwheel maneuver landed him flat on his back with Henderson on top and in his guard. But Pettis wasn’t worried. While Henderson was still trying to set up his attack, Pettis had already isolated one arm and swung his hips underneath for the armbar, trapping Henderson’s free arm underneath and giving him precious few options for an escape. It wasn’t exactly the jiu-jitsu version of the “Showtime kick” he’d employed in their first fight, but it worked – even on a black belt.

Maybe that’s what made this submission stand out over craftier ones, such as the creative kneebar finish that Kenny Robertson used on Brock Jardine at UFC 157. Not only did this one come in a fight with much higher stakes, it was also a surprise triumph of simplicity. Just the basic armbar that every white belt knows within a couple months of beginning jiu-jitsu training, but executed so well and so quickly that by the time Henderson realized what was happening, it was already too late.

Goes to show that, especially when it comes to submissions, it doesn’t have to be flashy. It just has to work.

Runner-up: Josh Burkman def. Jon Fitch

Talk about a surprise finish.

After Fitch was abruptly released by the UFC and then almost immediately signed to the World Series of Fighting roster, many of us assumed he’d breeze through the welterweight division on the smaller stage.

Burkman proved otherwise when he dropped Fitch with a right hand in the opening seconds of the first round of their WSOF 3, then locked on a guillotine choke and squeezed until Fitch was napping face-down on the canvas. With referee Steve Mazzagatti slow to intervene, Burkman even had time to roll Fitch over as he stood up to pose over his foe’s body with one fist in the air. Sure, maybe it was a touch indelicate, but you’ve got to give the man some points for style.

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